It's hard to say which is more outlandish--the plot of
Gravesend or the movie's origins. For this 16mm mean-streets indie
about four Italian-American boys who accumulate a trunk-full of dead bodies
during one long night in Brooklyn, 19-year-old NYU dropout Salvatore
Stabile used a three-man crew, two hot-wired lights, and a $5,000
inheritance from his gramma. He then went on to earn completion funds, a
Seattle Film Fest screening, a rave review in Variety, a "presented
by" credit from Oliver Stone, and a two-picture deal with Steven
Spielberg's Dreamworks. Certainly, Stabile's story is more original than
his movie's amalgam of Cassavetes, Scorsese, Gomez, Tarantino, and Kevin
Smith; even though none of the hothead ultra-V is as shocking as it wants
to be, Stabile does get the utmost out of unprofessional actors,
cramped-hallway sets, and the F-word. And since Gravesend is a far
more convincing piece of schlock than Stone's early-'70s Seizure,
you never know what this kid might have in store.